Courtney Coile

As co-director of the NBER International Social Security project, I have worked with researchers in a dozen countries in a long-running collaboration to study how social security affects retirement decisions and other issues relevant to an aging workforce. Our work is published in the Social Security and Retirement Programs Around the World series (University of Chicago Press). Other recent published work examines paid family leave, veterans’ disability benefits, and the economics of Alzheimer’s disease. My earlier work includes Reconsidering Retirement: How Losses and Layoff Affect Older Workers (Brookings Institution Press), co-authored with my colleague Phil Levine. I am involved with the broader research community as a research affiliate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and former co-director of the NBER Retirement and Disability Center, and as a recent member of the Committee on Population at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

At Wellesley, I have taught principles of microeconomics (ECON 101), which introduces students to a way of thinking that helps them understanding the world around them, and econometrics (ECON 203), where students learn to conduct and make sense of economic research. I have helped students apply these tools to pressing current issues in courses on health economics (ECON 232), the microeconomics of pandemics (ECON 233), and public economics (ECON 310). I served as inaugural director of the Knapp Social Science Center, which supports student and faculty research in the social sciences and promotes the exploration of issues like health and development from an interdisciplinary perspective.

In 2024, I stepped in a full-time administrative position as the College’s Provost and Dean of the College. I was drawn to this work by a desire to work with others who share my commitment to the College’s mission to make progress on issues that we care about and that are important for the College’s future.

In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my husband and two young adult children, running and doing other outdoor sports, and getting lost in a good book.

Education

• B.A., Harvard University
• Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology